Ears
by cup-o'-sweet-T.E.A
Summary: Hotch/Prentiss. After the shootout in the desert, Emily's got a major headache. Hotch comes to the rescue. Takes place in the 5x19 episode "A Rite of Passage". Don't own anything. Please R&R!


**I don't own Criminal Minds. I got this idea after watching the episode "A Rite of Passage". It takes place after the episode. There are references to the shooting scene at the end. This is a scene between Hotch and Prentiss that I think should've happened.**

**Read and Review please.**

_Emily drove the SUV as fast as she could, hoping that Hotch and Rossi would be okay. Morgan sat next to her in the passenger seat, machine gun ready. When the warehouse came into view, she noticed that Hotch and Rossi had taken shelter, and Boyd was shooting at them while conducting an ATV._

"_Prentiss, look out!" Morgan said, grabbing a proper hold on his weapon._

"_I got him! I got him!" Prentiss replied, focusing on maneuvering the SUV so that she wouldn't get shot or wreck._

_Boyd began to shoot at them, peppering the front of the SUV with bullet holes. One bullet came through the front window and she had to move to the side so as not to get hit. It went right between the seats and out the back window. Morgan took aim and began to shoot back at Boyd, right through the windshield._

_Finally, as their SUV neared Boyd, one of Morgan's bullets hit the rogue officer, causing him to fall off the ATV. Prentiss hit the brakes, and Morgan jumped out, gun still trained on the UnSub. _

_Rossi and Hotch stood, aiming their guns at Boyd as well._

"_You all right?" Hotch called._

"_Yeah," Morgan replied._

"_No!" Emily shouted. "Are you out of your mind? You blew out my ear drum!"_

"_What did you want me to do, he was coming right at us!" Morgan retorted._

"_I told you I had him." Emily said, still holding her right ear. _

"_He was shootin' at us Emily." Morgan stated calmly, gun still focused on Boyd._

"_You could've given me a heads up." Prentiss argued._

"_A loaded MP5 and a lunatic shooting at us wasn't enough? Come on." Morgan was a little insulted by Emily's anger._

_Emily sighed and walked back to the SUV, shaking her head. _

Emily reclined her seat on the jet. The pain in her ear had subsided, but she still had a serious headache. She closed her eyes, hoping a nap would solve her problems.

"Hey." Emily cracked an eye. Hotch was standing over her. She sat up quickly, and was rewarded with a bout of dizziness.

"Oh," she said in pain.

"Just lean back." Hotch said. He sat down in the empty seat next to her."How are you feeling?" He asked

"Like someone shot a machine gun next to my ear." She said sarcastically. Hotch chuckled.

"Yeah, I think you'll be okay." He said.

"Sorry for blowing up about it." Emily replied softly.

"We get it. You had Boyd coming right at you. You could've been shot." He said, gently stroking her hand. "You were under stress, you were full of adrenaline."

"Yeah." Emily said. "I should probably apologize to Morgan."

"He understands." Hotch said softly. Emily nodded, smiling at her superior.

"Oh, will this headache ever go away?" Emily asked, groaning in pain.

"Here," Hotch said, handing Emily some pain medicine. "Don't worry, it's just regular over-the-counter headache medicine. It came in handy when I had to deal with the pain after the explosion last year."

"Thanks, Hotch." Emily said.

"Anytime, Emily." Hotch returned, giving Emily one of his rare smiles. He touched her shoulder lightly and went back to his own seat.

Emily took the pain medicine and leaned back, thanking her lucky stars that she, like the rest of the team, had the wonderful man that was Aaron Hotchner to look out for them.

She turned around in her seat and looked at him briefly. He looked up at her and they shared a soft smile. Emily turned back around and closed her eyes, hoping to take a nap before they made it back to Quantico.

She was feeling better already.

**A/N: Oh my gosh. I haven't posted anything in a looooooong time. I was just going through old files on my computer and saw that I had this and hadn't finished it. I know…that episode was forever ago. But, due to the fact that our dear Paget has left the show, I figured we could re-hash some old Hotch/Prentiss moments, or in this case, create some that should have been there. So sad that my favorite pairing was never realized. Darn you CBS! **


End file.
